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COPECGH lambasts authorities for relaxing safety standards

The concerns come on the back of the Trade Fair gas explosion on Thursday, December 22, 2016.

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Five people have been confirmed dead with several others injured after the explosion that occurred at a gas filling station at La in the Greater Accra region.

It is unclear yet what may have caused the explosion but eyewitnesses say that a number of people were present at the filling station at the time of the explosion.

The explosion occurred between the La Cemetery and Trade Fair Centre.

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A statement from the Chamber and signed by the Executive Secretary, Duncan Amoah said:”The memory of a similar incident of June 3rd continue to remain fresh in the minds of many who lost dear ones and property but seems very little or not much has been learnt after assurances have been variously given.”Issues of effective monitoring and compliance to safety and acceptable standards by the authorities on such highly volatile and inflammable facilities still leaves a lot to be desired.”

The Chamber has therefore asked operators of fuel stations “to make it a priority of putting safety at the apex of their operations for the protection of lives and their own investments whiles challenging the authorities especially the monitoring unit of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) to enforce all necessary regulations regarding safety of such highly flammable facilities across the country.”

Below is the full statement:

CHAMBER OF PETROLEUM CONSUMERS GHANAYET ANOTHER FATAL EXPLOSION23/12/16Ghanaians have once again been awakened to the reality of potential disaster very close to residential and commercial spaces after another fatal gas explosion at Labadi a suburb of the capital that has reportedly taken a couple of unsuspecting lives.The memory of a similar incident of June 3rd continue to remain fresh in the minds of many who lost dear ones and property but seems very little or not much has been learnt after assurances have been variously given.Investigations are currently underway and we have a firm belief in the ability of the Police and Fire Service to do a thorough job at unraveling the true and exact details of what went wrong leading to the loss of lives and property.Issues of effective monitoring and compliance to safety and acceptable standards by the authorities on such highly volatile and inflammable facilities still leaves a lot to be desired.Whiles acceptable and regulatory standards or practices require routine and periodic maintenance and sometimes complete closure of such facilities including fuel stations to make way for repairs of worn out valves, tanks and pumps, many operators continue to put making money first before safety.The state institutions tasked with ensuring such routine checks across these facilities are complied with continue to erode the public confidence of working efficiently to curtail any such unfortunate catastrophic incidences. The loss of any unsuspecting life or lives at a fuel or a gas station due to negligence of safety standards and proper maintenance or the enforcement of same by the authorities cannot be countenanced nor accepted.We appeal to the owners and operators of such facilities to make it a priority of putting safety at the apex of their operations for the protection of lives and their own investments whiles challenging the authorities especially the monitoring unit of the National Petroleum Authority ( NPA ) to enforce all neccesary regulations regarding safety of such highly flammable facilities across the country.SignedDuncan AmoahExecutive Secretary

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